Tidningen & är utgiven av
Lundby församling 2016 nr 1
Leading article
God’s graffiti English translation
bibeln
God’s graffiti There is a charged scene in the film ”Breaking the waves”, where the young woman Bess confronts the undeniable context which has been a part of her entire life. Bess has been excommunicated and placed outside the Church community. Her belief in love and the sacrifice that she, in these circumstances, has been forced to make, is also a journey towards the cross and her destruction. Life is in the process of disintegration and when Bess stumbles into that barren Church of stone. It is as if she were an intruder, a persona non gratia looking in desperation for one last, homecoming, refuge or grace. Here, in front of the altar, bearded, black-clad men talk about ”the love of the word of God”. When Bess chooses to speak, it is the first time a woman’s voice fills this space and there is a silence, just as at some border control where documents are reviewed, someone is given free passage or turned away. ” I don’t understand what you’re saying. How can you love a word? You cannot love words. You can’t be in love with a word. You can only love another human being…” It is the only thing she says, the only thing she believes is worth saying. But Bess does not meet the grace she might have hoped for. The love for God’s Word is clad in stone and like a garbage sack she is thrown outside on the gravel. Like an injured bird unable to fly and left to die.
We need to talk about how we read ancient, sacred writings. We need to acknowledge people like Bess. Those who are killed by ”the love of the word of God”. We can use the biblical texts to humiliate, close out and extinguish life and love. We can also find texts and words that liberate and restore a person’s dignity. It is this choice we must make. The Bible is not a book, but rather several books, written by people in different times and with different agendas. There are ancient texts, sometimes bedded in beliefs about the world which are no longer scientifically realistic or morally acceptable. Often texts have their origin in very specific historical situations and a cultural context which makes it difficult to apply these words to other periods and places. There are texts of different genres. Some are poetic in nature and have a conscious use of imagery. Other texts are considered to be more like historical documents describing events, based on given religious and cultural perspectives. There are lists of rules and laws; directories; songs; heroic tales and legends; dreams of justice and peace; calls for war; stories of unexpected encounters; clever humor and erotic love poems. All of this is the Bible. The world of the human being. Author P-O R writes: ”the Bible was the first big story book, who told me of a world that was not a village, but a world of strange people who looked like us. It was The Introduction of all times ”. In the Bible we get to know man, in the span between God’s presence - ”you surround me on all sides” and absence of God - ”God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Publisher: Lundby Parish, Kristian Lillö Editorial group: Pontus Bäckström Malin Lingnert Clement McKay Women of the Bible, 8-9: Johanna Demander Front cover: “Prophecy”, Steve Forster Oil on Canvas
The human cry for meaning, hope and consolation . God’s answer sometimes takes its time, sometimes seemingly to vanish completely. The Bible is like a love affair in which man and God are continually drawn to each other; threaten to leave; separate; find their way back together; say vicious things that hurt and leave a scar; do regrettable things that never should have been done; reconcile; fall asleep together as friends; and wake up to a new age, where all that is of old must be tried once again. When Bess stands there, alone and vulnerable, it is as if God has also been reborn, forced to choose sides, to define what love requires and is all about, to become Jesus. So it begins anew. The story of Bess. The story of the human being and God. In the painting ”Prophecy” by artist Steve Forster (cover image) old images and writings are painted over. One can interpret the picture in different ways. Perhaps one interpretation is of clergymen who want to hide the graffiti, that which is forbidden and uncontrollable and to paint the wall white and unsoiled. But even so the old colours remain intact just under the surface; a historical layer we may expose when the paint starts to peel. The new virgin surface is also a fresh canvas with room for new human graffiti, new images and messages, painted over the old texts and imagery. God’s graffiti wall. The holy scripture. Pontus Bäckström